Volume: 17 Issue: 2 June 2010

The fact that persons of all abilities have the right to access playgrounds is proposed to be reinforced in law in Ontario in 2010. This will affect every playground owner/operator and they will have to understand the requirements as they apply to design, installation and maintenance. Although inspection, enforcement and penalties have not yet been determined, the owner can be assured that there will be consequences for noncompliance.

This article will look at the most changeable and dynamic part of the playground, the surfacing and therefore be restricted to the ground level accessible route. With the variety of surfaces available to owner/operators, this will be a very challenging part of the playground.

The proposed AODA will require compliance to the Annex H of the CSA Z614 with the addition that there shall be an accessible route to each ground level play component. We will look at Annex H for compliance to Z614, definition of the accessible route, the requirements for the accessible route and what constitutes a ground level play component